The present invention relates to a tape cassette that is a recording medium in an extremely small-sized camcorder, or the like. More particularly, the invention is directed to a tape cassette that has been arranged to prevent a display label from being pasted onto a portion other than a label area surface.
FIG. 5 is an outer appearance perspective view seen from a rear surface side of a conventional tape cassette in which a front lid is closed; and FIG. 6 is an outer appearance perspective view seen from a rear surface side of the same tape cassette in which the front lid is open.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a cassette casing constituting an outer covering member of the tape cassette and within that there are accommodated a tape supply side reel 2 and tape take-up side reel 3, onto which a magnetic tape is wound. On a front surface side of the cassette casing 1, the magnetic tape T which has been drawn out from the tape supply side reel 2 crosses a mouth 4 and is taken up onto the tape take-up side reel 3. The front lid 5 serves as a protector that protects the magnetic tape T crossing the mouth 4.
The front lid 5 is opened correspondingly with the operation of the tape cassette being loaded into a recording/reproducing apparatus not illustrated, whereby the magnetic tape T is drawn out from the mouth 4 and is loaded onto a drum. Also, when the front lid 5 is open to operation, a shutter plate 6 retreats as sliding on the upper surface of the cassette casing 1 together with the front lid 5, whereby the front lid 5 is largely retracted from the mouth 4. Incidentally, on a rear surface of the cassette casing 1 there is provided a label area 7 on which the rectangular display label 8 is pasted.
Meanwhile, the shutter plate 6 that retreats together with the front lid 5 slides on an upper surface passage 9 recessed by the extent corresponding to the thickness of the shutter plate of the cassette casing 1, and when the shutter plate 6 has been completely made open, a rear end edge 6a thereof abuts against a level difference edge 1a of the cassette casing 1 and is stopped.
In the above-described tape cassette, the display label 8 which must originally be pasted on the label area 7 is sometimes erroneously pasted on the upper surface passage 9 of the cassette casing 1 as illustrated in FIG. 7. However, when the display label 8 is pasted on the upper surface passage 9 of the cassette casing 1, the shutter plate 6 is interfered with the pasted display label 8, with the result that the retreat movement of the shutter plate 6 becomes impossible. As a result, there comes up a decisive matter that the loading operation of the tape cassette becomes incomplete.
Also, there occurs the inconvenience that the display label 8 is peeled off or broken due to the interference between the shutter plate 6 and the display label 8. Also, there occurs another problem, that the shutter plate 6 rides over the display label 8, with the result that the shutter plate 6 may be deformed, or, in the worst case, it may become difficult to eject the tape cassette.
For example, as the countermeasures against those problems, a notice for preventing the pasting of the display label 8 to the upper surface passage 9 of the cassette casing 1 is attached. However, it is difficult to reliably prevent such problems.
Also, as another measure taken with respect to such problems, there is a case where a space was provided in height so that, even when the display label 8 has been pasted on the upper surface passage 9 of the cassette casing 1, the shutter plate 6 is not interfered with the label 8. However, in this case, the space which corresponds to the thickness of the label plus an extra space for unstuck state thereof becomes necessary, whereby the increase in the height of the tape cassette raises such a problem as disadvantage for the miniaturization.
Further, in the above-described construction, in a case where the shutter plate 6 is formed with an opaque member, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the tape supply side reel 2 and tape take-up side reel 3 are hidden by the shutter plate 6 and cannot be seen from the outside in the closed state of the front lid 5. For this reason, there also comes up the problem that the taking-up status of the tape on the tape supply side reel 2 and tape take-up side reel 3 cannot be recognized.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a tape cassette in which a configuration is modified to visually prevent any display label from being pasted on the passage for movement of the shutter of the cassette casing, so that a user is encouraged to attach the display label on the normal area.
To attain the above-described object, the tape cassette of the present invention is formed with being curved the edge on a side opposite to the front lid of the shutter and the edge of the cassette casing against which the edge of the shutter abuts, whereby the passage for movement of the shutter forms meanderings so that a rectangular display label can not fit within the upper surface of the cassette casing which constitutes the passage for movement of the shutter.
According to the tape cassette as constructed above, since the passage for movement of the shutter has been made to meander, it does not happen that the rectangular display label fits within the passage for movement, and it is possible to recognize that the passage for movement is not the area used for pasting the display label.